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Bryan, Home Appliance Technician

Category: Appliance

Satisfied Customers: 12147

Experience: 15 yrs. experience as a certified appliance technician.

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Our Hotpoint fridge is not getting cold enough to keep freezer

Resolved Question:

Our Hotpoint fridge is not getting cold enough to keep freezer food frozen. There does seem to be something generating cold within the fridge, just not enough to keep the food cold. I'm also not hearing any noises coming from the fridge. Yesterday I noticed that all of the settings were for the inside temperature were all the way down for the cooler and freezer, so I turned them all the way up to cool faster(found out today that you're not supposed to do that and have since turned them back to the factory median settings). Took the back panel off to look for any icing, but I did not find any. There was an overabundance of dust that I vacuumed out. Any ideas?

Hello, Thank you for using this service, I will be helping you with your problem today, you can look for the model number either on the ceilling or one of the side walls inside the refrigerator section. it may be there.

Okay feel it, is it hot , warm, or cold ? also is that fan next to it running ? also check the one in the freezer. is that running ? when you said you took the back panel off to look for icing do you mean inside the freezer or in the back of the refrigerator where the compressor is ?

Okay feel it, is it hot , warm, or cold ? also is that fan next to it running ? also check the one in the freezer. is that running ? when you said you took the back panel off to look for icing do you mean inside the freezer or in the back of the refrigerator where the compressor is ?

-The compressor is cold to the touch

-The Fan next to the compressor is not running

-The panel I took off was at the bottom of the fridge, I do not see a clear way to access the freezer from the back

okay. this sounds like it stuck in a defrost cycle. what I need you to do is open the refrigerator section and where you controls are look up underneath that for a hole where the defrost timer is. you wont see the whole thing but theres a knob up in there that you can turn with a flat head screwdriver. turn that and see if the refrigerator starts.

I'm in front of the Temperature panel, on the left side underneath there is an opening, I can feel hard styrofoam and plastic, but nothing I can turn with a screwdriver. As I move right there are 14 circular holes in a 2 X7 horizontal formation and to the right of that is another... something not really sure how to describe it. I think I can feel metal and plastic, but it's hard to see. It may be what fastens the panel to the fridge.

I think I know whats going on and why you cant find the timer, your controls are on the back wall correct ? okay you can see number 301 on this diagram its a little cap (plastic) pop it off with a screw driver and you will see the dial. sorry for the confusion.

Sorry for all the question but just a few more. unplug the refrigerator and since you have the control panel down can you (make sure the refrigerator is unplugged) take the two wires off the cold control and tape them together so they don't hit any metal parts of the refrigerator then plug the refrigerator in. tell me if it starts then . this is the cold control.

It seems we are at a point where I'm not sure if your understanding what I'm trying to have you do. what bundles are you speaking about. on the cold control there are just two wires. I just needed you to put those two wires together and leave every thing else connected. somewhere your missing the power to the fans and compressor.

There are two sets of wires that end with a plastic plug that connect to the control panel. One set has 4 wires(brown, orange, pink and green with a yellow stripe) and the other as 6 wires(brown, orange, black, blue, blue with purple stripe and a green with a yellow stripe). I do not see any other wires. Do we need to remove the metal case to get to it?

yes you need to remove the case. I see what you did now but that wont work. we need to jump the cold control out and see if this runs. the cold control is the part I showed you above. there should be screws going into the rear of the refrigerator holding the controls to the back wall (unplug the refrigerator when you do this) after you put the two wires from the cold control together plug the refrigerator is and see if it starts running.

Alright so we've successfully removed the cold control and I have the wires but there are 3 connected to it. 2 that come from the power saver/moisture control switch and one from freezer temp control. Do we need to strip the wires of the connector? It would seem once we do that we can't use the connectors or a cold control any more. I just want to double check before I do anything irreversible.

The freezer and the cooler each have their own control. The two wires cant be plugged into each other, do we need something conductive connecting the two? I don't see how just taping them together will "jump" it.

well are the connectors bare or do they have plastic sleeves over them? all you have to do is get them to contact each other. leave the cold control from the freezer alone for now, I may have you jump that one after. you can use a piece of wire to put the two wires together if you need to.

okay , you will need a piece of wire to bridge them. I'm sorry this is such a pain but I would like to get this going for you, we need to know if one of those cold controls is the issue, if one goes bad you get no power to the compressor or the fans. I believe one is bad

okay . I guess aluminum foils would work. never did that before though ! LOL anyway okay plug the wires back on that control and make sure the control is turned up all the way and then do the same thing to the freezer control. Please be careful. let me know if it runs.

okay we are at an impasse, I pretty sure your not going to have a volt meter do you ? it seems the cold controls are not the cause of your issue from the tests we've done. that leaves two possibilities 1 the timer is bad or two you have a bad wire somewhere in this.without a volt meter we cant test power to the timer so its difficult to tell you what to do. I would replace the defrost timer , this would be the most common suspect at this point. heres a link to order it. http://www.repairclinic.com/PartDetail/Defrost-Timer/WR9X520/311013?modelNumber=CTX18EABARAA?RCAID=1000065 I would like to be more Precise if I could but with what we are working with this is the best I can do, the timer is about $39.00, I hope this helps, thanks , Bryan

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